Cheil Worldwide has confirmed the appointment of former Sapient Nitro CCO Malcolm Poynton who will be the Korean-based network’s first global CCO.
Cheil also includes McKinney and The Barbarian Group in the US, Beattie McGuinness Bungay and Iris, which it bought late last year. Last week the agency, headed by Daiki Lim, poached McCann Worldgroup new business head Lotta Malm Hallqvist as its first global new business boss.
Poynton, who was ECD of Ogilvy in London before joining Sapient Nitro four years ago, has won numerous awards for digital work and also worked on the famous Dove ‘Real Beauty’ business at Ogilvy. He says: “Cheil Worldwide has the talent, dynamism and the ambition to stand shoulder to shoulder and even surpass the most creative networks out there. I’m looking forward to being part of making that a reality.”
Cheil began in life as Samsung’s in-house agency and still enjoys a close relationship with the tech giant. Its other main global accounts are Samsonite and Hankook Tire, which probably explains the reason behind these two latest hires.
Samsung, armed with the world’s biggest marketing budget, is a great client to have (other agencies chip away at it but Cheil still seems to do most of the work) but Cheil needs some others on something like the same scale to be a real global player. But you can’t accuse it of not trying.
